George S. Kaufman & Moss Hart's comedy, You Can't Take It With You, has likely received thousands of stagings since it won the Pulitzer in 1936, but not many are like the current Off-Broadway mounting opening tonight, Feb. 17.

George S. Kaufman & Moss Hart's comedy, You Can't Take It With You, has likely received thousands of stagings since it won the Pulitzer in 1936, but not many are like the current Off-Broadway mounting opening tonight, Feb. 17.

Designing this look at an eccentric but admirable American family are Kaori Akazawa (set), Joe Saint (lighting) and Elly van Horne (costumes).

Asked the significance of the company name, "Ma-Yi," press representative Gary Springer explained that Ma-Yi is Chinese for ants. "Back in pre- history, Chinese traders sailed along the coast of the Phillippines and saw all these little islands that looked like ants. It wasn't until the Spanish came and named the islands for King Philip of Spain that the islands became the Philippines." And why did the new theatre ensemble choose "ants" as its moniker? "The significance is that the Philippines were around before the Western and Spanish influence." The theatre was founded in 1989 to further Filipino and Filipino-American artists.

NATCO, formed the same year, hopes to bring Asian-American artists to classic western theatre, without imposing "Asian cultural references" on the text.